The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

PART I.] THE FRENCH WAR. 261
what he imagined neglect and contempt, that, had we
not supplied him with a few necessaries, without which
he could not go to war, he threatened to return, fired
with resentment, to his nation. In short, I dread that,
by the present management of Indian affairs, we are
losing the interest of those people, the preservation of
whose friendship is of the last importance to the colonies
in general, and to this in particular.
I am sorry to acquaint you, that the quartermaster has
misbehaved egregiously, embezzling and disposing of
some of the regimental stores, and afterwards running
away, and taking a man of the regiment with him. He
had leave to go to Alexandria, to order up some of the
stores left there, and managed his affairs with such cunning, that he was gone too long to be pursued, before
he was suspected.
I do not know, that I ever gave your Honor cause to
suspect me of ingratitude, a crime I detest, and would
most carefully avoid. If an open, disinterested behaviour
causes offence, I may have offended; because I have all
along laid it down as a maxim, to represent facts freely
and impartially, but not more so to others, Sir, than to
you. If instances of my ungrateful behaviour had been
particularized, I would have answered them. But I
have long been convinced, that my actions and their
motives have been maliciously misrepresented.** In pursuing the thread of intercourse between Governor Dinwiddie
and Colonel Washington, from the beginning of their acquaintance, it will
not be easy to detect many acts of the former towards the latter, which deserved expressions of gratitude. His first appointments were solicited by
friends, whom it was the Governor's interest to oblige, and the duties of
them were executed in such a manner, as not only to extort approbation,
but to command the notice and applause of the whole country. By the
discretion and good sense, which Colonel Washington displayed in all his
early enterprises, by his unexampled toils, courage, energy, and patience
in his first campaign among the Alleganies, and by his brilliant conduct
on the terrible battle-field of the Monongahela, he had acquired a reputa